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Death Eaters
The Death Eaters was the name given to the most ardent followers of Lord Voldemort. The group primarily consisted of wizards and witches who were radical pure-blood supremacists who practised the Dark Arts with reckless abandon, malevolence and without regard to or fear of wizarding law. Lord Voldemort used this select group of wizards and witches during both the First and Second Wizarding Wars, employing them as his elite force. They often wore black hoods and masks with snake-like eye slits to cover their faces. The Death Eaters were considered Lord Voldemort's inner circle and had the Dark Mark burned into their left forearms. When Voldemort touched one of them, each of the Death Eaters felt it, signalling for them to Apparate to their leader's side. History Forerunners Before the Death Eaters themselves came to be, Tom Riddle, as Voldemort was known in his childhood and early adulthood, gathered a gang of Slytherin students who considered themselves his friends, though in truth, he felt no real attachments to any of them due to his lack of desire for a true friend. According to former Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, they were a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking glory, and the thuggish seeking a leader who could show them more refined cruelty, and were considered to be forerunners of the Death Eaters since most (if not all) indeed became the first Death Eaters. He manipulated them to do his bidding, and though this led to several nasty incidents over the years, with Riddle's strategic discretion, none was linked back to the group, much less the model student Riddle himself. Origins Before 1970, Riddle formed a group he named the Knights of Walpurgis, an organisation that included people that Voldemort knew from his time at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Nearly all of those recruited were from Slytherin House. However there may have been recruits from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and even from foreign schools within the ranks as well. He would later rename the group "the Death Eaters". Members of the organisation Voldemort deemed to be valuable and faithful would be branded with the Dark Mark. This symbol, a skull with a snake protruding from the mouth, was used to summoned his followers at will. Actively gathering an army of Dark Wizards and creatures, with the belief that his hidden Horcruxes granted him immortality, Voldemort and his followers planned to overthrow the Ministry of Magic. Their ranks were huge, outnumbering the Order of the Phoenix by approximately twenty to one. First Wizarding War "Imagine that Voldemort's powerful now. You don't know who his supporters are, you don't know who's working for him and who isn't; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able to stop themselves." ''—Voldemort's undetermined Death Eaters at the height of the war. Death Eater activity during the First Wizarding War consisted of stealth attacks, espionage, torture and mass killings of wizards, witches, and large numbers of Muggles. These were initiated by the Death Eaters, often, but not always, on the orders of Voldemort. Part of the Death Eaters modus operandi was to cast the Dark Mark over every house where they committed murder. This inspired much terror in the wizarding community. However, the Death Eaters remained opposed by the Order of the Phoenix, founded by Albus Dumbledore and the Ministry, in retaliation for these heinous crimes and spearheaded by the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Barty Crouch Snr, legalised the usage of the Unforgivable Curses against suspects who would often be killed rather than captured and would imprison suspected supporters of Voldemort without trial on various occasions. At the height of the war, Severus Snape reported to Lord Voldemort the part of a prophecy he had heard, while listening in on a conversation between Dumbledore and Sybill Trelawney, which predicted that either Harry Potter (son of Order members James and Lily Potter) or Neville Longbottom (son of Order members Alice and Frank Longbottom) would be the one to destroy Voldemort. Voldemort chose to attack the Potters, seeing Harry as a greater danger to him. Despite being under the protection of the Fidelius Charm, Voldemort was able to gain entry into their home because James had entrusted his old friend Peter Pettigrew to be Secret-Keeper, and Pettigrew subsequently betrayed the secret to Voldemort. Snape failed to overhear the entire prophecy, including the announcement that Voldemort himself would mark his own equal. Although Voldemort killed James and, as a promise to Snape's pleas that she be spared, Lily was offered a choice to step aside but she refused and thus Voldemort murdered her as well. When Voldemort next tried to kill Harry, the Killing Curse rebounded off Harry and hit Voldemort, destroying his living body. However, due to his extensive performance of Dark magic, Voldemort's soul survived and escaped, while a bit of his soul attached its self to Harry (as he was the only other living thing present within the cottage) giving the boy a scar in the form of a lightning bolt and thus sealing his fate as the "Boy Who Lived" as well as starting the destiny forced upon him. With their leader's disappearance, the Death Eaters largely fell into chaos. Many were rounded up and imprisoned in Azkaban without trial as part of the hard line taken by Ministry official Barty Crouch Snr. Sirius Black, whom Pettigrew framed for his crimes, was among the prime suspects of Death Eater activities imprisoned without a trial. His wife, Willow, was kidnapped by the Ministry and put under a Confundus charm, as they believed she was in on the plan. Soon afterwards, Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and Rabastan Lestrange, and Barty Crouch Jr tortured the Longbottoms into insanity while trying to procure information about Voldemort's whereabouts: this attack was considered one of the most atrocious crimes in recent history. They were captured and sentenced to Azkaban, but Bellatrix proudly proclaimed that the Dark Lord would rise again. On the other hand, Barty Crouch Jr proclaimed his own innocence, begging for his father to believe him: his father ignored his pleas for leniency and sentenced him to prison, a sentence that led the entire court to roar with triumph. Between wars "''The Dark Lord will rise again, Crouch! Throw us into Azkaban; we will wait! He will rise again and will come for us, he will reward us beyond any of his other supporters! We alone were faithful! We alone tried to find him!" —Bellatrix Lestrange on trial for her Death Eater activities. Some Death Eaters managed to elude justice by claiming the Imperius Curse had been used on them, such as Lucius Malfoy, or by turning in other Death Eaters, as Igor Karkaroff did. Due to many trying to escape by claiming they were bewitched, the Ministry assigned specialists to find out who was lying, although this did not work out to the fullest since Malfoy and several others were found innocent. Most followers hid their allegiance to Voldemort and therefore did not try to find him, although a handful of Death Eaters, such as the Lestranges and Barty Crouch Jr, remained fiercely loyal to their fallen master and sought him out. They were supposedly rewarded by Voldemort for their loyalty. Some, such as Evan Rosier, chose to resist arrest and fought to the death. Sirius Black believed that if the rogue Death Eaters got wind of Peter Pettigrew is still alive, they would seek to kill him for it was his information that led to Voldemort's downfall. It was for this reason that Pettigrew hid in his unregistered Animagus form as a pet rat, stationed near Harry in an attempt to bide his time to turn the boy in should the Death Eaters start to regain momentum, in which nobody would dare say he betrayed Lord Voldemort. However, Pettigrew was ousted by Sirius and Remus Lupin, thus forcing him to seek out the weakened Dark Lord for shelter, assisting him in his regeneration. Thirteen years later, at the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup in 1994, a group of Death Eaters attacked the camp of wizards and witches and a nearby Muggle family. The Death Eaters seemed to consider torturing and humiliating Muggles a form of entertainment. When Crouch Jr launched the Dark Mark into the air out of rage for his comrades not seeking out their fallen master, the Death Eaters fled in fear of Voldemort's retribution for their disloyalty. Second Wizarding War The Dark Lords Return On 24 June 1995, Lord Voldemort finally returned to a physical body through a Dark potion created by Peter Pettigrew (the potion required a bone from Voldemort's father, flesh from the servant and blood from the enemy — that being Harry). The body was human-shaped, though hairless and with many unusual features such as serpentine nostril slits and feline-esque eyes. Moments after Lord Voldemort had finally regained his body, he summoned his followers to him by touching Peter Pettigrew's Dark Mark. Some proved too afraid to return to him, such as defector Igor Karkaroff, while others who were dead or imprisoned remained absent. Severus Snape did not return on the claim that he had to appear more loyal to Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix: Snape returned two hours later, under the claim that he was trying to maintain the cover of a double agent, which the Dark Lord found satisfying. Despite several absences, there were many who returned the call, including Walden Macnair, Lucius Malfoy, Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle, and Tom Avery. Tom Avery went to beg for forgiveness, but Voldemort told the band of Death Eaters who did not try to find him that he wants thirteen years of repayment before he could forgive them for their wavered loyalty: Snape would later comment that had the faithless Death Eaters not been forgiven, then Voldemort would have very few followers left. Harry Potter was present for Voldemort's return to power, and even duelled him, resulting in a spectacular display of Priori Incantatem, revealing that the cores of Voldemort's and Harry's wands were related. Harry managed to escape and tell Headmaster Albus Dumbledore of Voldemort's return. Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge and most of the Ministry of Magic originally refused to believe that Voldemort had returned. Though Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore served as dissenting voices, the majority of the public chose to believe in the Ministry and its wider propaganda and smear campaign against Potter and Dumbledore, which would be printed in news outlets such as the Daily Prophet. Finally in 1996, the Minister for Magic witnessed Voldemort and Dumbledore's duel in the Ministry of Magic and was forced to admit his mistake. Bid for the Prophecy "''We have confirmed that ten-high security prisoners in the early hours of yesterday evening had escaped. And of course the Muggle Prime Minister has been alerted to the danger. There is convincing evidence that the escape was engineered by a man with personal experience in breaking out of Azkaban, notorious mass murderer Sirius Black, cousin of the escapee, Bellatrix Lestrange." ''—Announcement of the 1996 mass Azkaban breakout. Armed with the advantage of the Ministry's denial, the Death Eaters kept a low profile in order to maintain their standing in the wizarding world and slowly but surely rebuild their forces without detection or hindrance. Due in part to the Ministry's refusal to remove the Dementorsfrom Azkaban, a proposition Dumbledore supported immediately following Voldemort's return, the Death Eaters informally recruited the Dementors to their cause. Similar progress was made with the giants. The quiet revolt of the Dementors fostered a mass breakout of imprisoned Death Eaters from Azkaban in early 1996. In early summer of 1996, Voldemort sent a group of twelve Death Eaters, led by Lucius Malfoy, into the Department of Mysteries in order to steal the prophecy concerning himself and Harry Potter. Having originally attacked Harry Potter based upon a partial recounting of it, Voldemort now desired to hear the full version in order to understand entirely the nature of the connection between himself and Potter. Harry was lured there, along with five other members of Dumbledore's Army, when Voldemort used their connection to give Harry a false vision of his godfather being tortured. However, Harry and his friends managed to elude the Death Eaters, and the prophecy was accidentally destroyed by Neville Longbottom during the struggle. A battle ensued between the Death Eaters and several members of the Order of the Phoenix. Eleven of the twelve Death Eaters were captured, and Sirius Black was killed: Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange fled but not before Ministry officials witnessed the return of the Dark Lord, which thus signalled the start of open warfare. During the summer, Violet Willis, also known as Violet Black, was made a Death Eater due to the curse placed on her by Bellatrix Lestrange. Violet was to be made the real heir of the House of Black and would become the Dark Lords Potioneer later on. Start of open war The raid was a failure for the Death Eaters because their reactivation was no longer a secret and the captured Death Eaters were then sent to Azkaban. Additionally, Voldemort failed in his objective to seize the prophecy concerning himself and Harry, infuriating him. Revealed at last to the wizarding community, the Death Eaters proceeded to resume their earlier lifestyle and behaviour. Kidnapping, torturing, and murdering of wizards, witches and Muggles began anew as the Second War began, which included the capture of wandmaker Garrick Ollivander, the murder of Order Of The Phoenix member Emmeline Vance, and the murder of Amelia Bones, who was until that point the head of the Department For Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic. Due to the Ministry's failure to accept the reality of Voldemort's return early on, the Death Eaters' forces had already grown to the point where the Ministry had a very difficult time keeping them in check, made only worse when the Minister for Magic still cared more about the bureaucracy's reputation than actual security. Victory at Hogwarts During the Second Wizarding War, Voldemort plotted to be rid of Albus Dumbledore. At the close of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry year in June 1997, Dumbledore and Harry obtained a locket that they believed to be one of the Horcruxes of Voldemort from a cave filled with Inferi. They Apparated into Hogsmeade and through the assistance of Madam Rosmerta, they saw a Dark Mark hanging in the sky above Hogwarts Castle. Dumbledore and Harry borrowed broomsticks and flew to Hogwarts' highest tower in the castle, the Astronomy Tower. Dumbledore encountered Draco Malfoy and performed the Full Body-Bind Curseon Harry, who was hidden under the Invisibility Cloak. Draco revealed how he successfully used a Vanishing Cabinet to help the Death Eaters enter Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Dumbledore then informed Draco that he already knew about the assassination plot, the cursed necklace, and the poison intended to kill him. He also delayed Draco in his plans to murder him until several Death Eaters, including Alecto and Amycus Carrow, Fenrir Greyback, and Corban Yaxley, arrived at the scene. Severus Snape successfully cast the Killing Curse on Dumbledore in front of the four Death Eaters, Fenrir Greyback, Draco, and Harry, who was still hidden under his Invisibility Cloak and frozen in place by Dumbledore's spell. After the latter's death, the jubilant Death Eaters retreated on Snape's orders. Harry, free from Dumbledore's Full Body-Bind Curse, quickly chased after the Death Eaters and cast several unsuccessful spells at Snape when they reached the grounds. One Death Eater, Thorfinn Rowle, set fire to Rubeus Hagrid's hut, and the Death Eaters disapparated when they reached the gate. Also present were Rowle and Gibbon, who was accidentally killed by a stray Killing Curse from the former, the only casualty on the Death Eater's side. In addition to Dumbledore's death, Bill Weasley was attacked by Fenrir Greyback and received scars on his face but lived without becoming a werewolf because Greyback was not fully transformed at the time of the attack. However, Bill sustained minimal lycanthropic symptoms, including a taste for raw meat. Overall, the mission was a great success for the Death Eaters as they had destroyed their master's most powerful enemy, striking a devastating blow to the morale of those who remained standing against Voldemort.